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Saudi Arabia – Visa ban on workers from Ebola hit countries

02 September 2014

Saudi Arabia has stopped granting visas to workers from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, three countries that have been worst-hit by the Ebola virus, the Labour Ministry announced, reports uk.news.yahoo.com.

The preventive measure is based on directives from the foreign and health ministries to avoid the spread of Ebola to the Kingdom, Saudi Arabia’s official news agency reported.

Of the 3,069 reported cases, the virus, for which there is no approved treatment of vaccine, has claimed 1,552 lives: 694 in Liberia, 430 in Guinea, 422 in Sierra Leon, and six in Nigeria, according to latest figures from the World Health Organisation.

Saudi Arabia made a similar decision in April this year when it announced the suspension of visas for Muslim pilgrims from Guinea and Liberia.

The hajj annual pilgrimage, the world's biggest Muslim gathering, draws two million people to Saudi Arabia each year, including many from the West African countries affected by the Ebola outbreak. This year it falls in October.

The temporary suspension of labour visas from the three African nations "will not affect the labour market in Saudi Arabia" where the number of workers from these countries "is very little", Deputy Labour Minister Mufrej al-Haqbani is quoted as saying.

He said laboratory tests before arrival were "strictly required" by the labour ministry for all foreigners coming from West Africa.